NYMPHOMANIAC
Production Information Directed by Lars von Trier 'Produced by' Marie Cecilie Gade, Louise Vesth 'Written by' Lars von Trier 'S'tarring Charlotte Gainsbourg, Stacy Martin, Stellan Skarsgård, Shia LaBeouf, Christian Slater, Jamie Bell, Uma Thurman, Willem Dafoe, Mia Goth, Sophie Kennedy Clark, Connie Nielsen, Michaël Pas, Jean-Marc Barr, Udo Kier 'Cinematography' Manuel Alberto Claro 'Edited by '''Morten Højbjerg, Molly Marlene Stensgaard 'Production 'companies''' Artificial Eye, Film i Väst, Heimatfilm, Les Films du Losange, Zentropa Entertainments Distributed by Les Films du Losange (France), Concorde Filmverleih (Germany) Release dates 25 December 2013 (Denmark), 1 January 2014 (Belgium and France), 20 February 2014 (Germany) 'Running time (Volume I) '''117 minutes, 145 minutes (Uncut) 'Running time (Volume II) 124 minutes, 180 minutes (Uncut) '''Running time (Both volumes)'' 241 minutes, 325 minutes (Uncut) '''Country Denmark, Belgium, France, Germany 'Language' English 'Budget' $4.7 million '''Excess in ''Nymphomaniac Structural excess One of the first scenes of the movie, after Seligman has taken Joe to his house and offered her a cup of tea, explicitly states the tone of the movie. The character played by Stellan Skarsgård asks the hurt woman why she was attacked and she replies that she can tell him, but so that he understands she has to start from the beginning, and that is going to be a long and moral story. From that point, the narrative revolves around these two concepts, the length and the morality. In any case, the movie does not judge Joe's character's act, since Seligman is continually justifying her behavior. The midpoint of the movie (or the last scene of the first part if the movie is watched in its two-segment version) makes also reference to its own structure. In this moment, the narrative gets to a cliff hanger, a typical resource of the TV series to keep the attention of the spectator until the next episodes. In Nymphomaniac, the scene that serves as hinge between the two parts ends up with Joe having intercourse with Jerôme and saying that she does not feel anything. Apparently, her body has reached a limit and needs to be restarted again in the following 3 hours of the movie. Narrative excess It will be impossible to pay attention to all the scenes that present a graphic depiction of sex or violence. Nevertheless, some moments of the films stand out not only because the images, but also because of the way they are displayed in the movie in order to enhance the perception of the excess and the embodiment of suffering by the spectators. That way, narrative excess and internal length of the segment, are intertwined and mutually influence one another. The first scene that prolongs its story in excess is the one that tells the bet between B. and Joe in the train. They are competing for having sex with more men than the other contestant as if they were in a fishing competition. When there remains only one man who has not participated in the competition, the bet is raised: Joe can win if she manages to have sex with him. The scene lingers in excess (even more in the director’s cut) so that the spectator can let him or herself go and stop rationalizing it. Everything in this sequence is excessive: the amount of men, the behavior of the two girls, the metaphor with fishing in the river, and especially the finale, when Joe performs a blow job to the last man (shown in a very graphic close-up) and swallows the semen. Another moment in the film which is worth mentioning for the purpose of the analysis is when Mrs. H. (Uma Thurman) appears in scene with her three sons to ruin the relationship between Joe and her husband, who has decided to leave her for the young girl. The scene lasts for a long time tinting more and more the movie with a patina of melodrama. First, Mrs. H and the kids are hidden in the landing when Mr. H. shows up in Joe's house with his suitcase; then they enter and tour around the house in order to see the loci of betrayal. One of the most altered moments is when Mrs. H. encourages the children to sit on the "whore bed". Uma Thurman's character is in the verge of a nervous breakdown during the entire scene, but the situation turns to be more difficult when Joe's next date appears at the door. The scene, which was excessive before has now a new turning that creates a complete caricature. Here, the movie is brilliantly referencing itself to make fun of the melodramatic excess of the situation. Paratextual excess As it is normal in other syntagms of excess, Nymphomaniac exceeds the time of the confinement of the narrative to prolong its story in the paratextual materials, or in other words the orienting paratexts, as Jason Mittell calls them. The buzz around the movie started months before the official release with a poster showing all the main characters posing in very suggestive and sexualized positions (the image that is shown in the heading of this article). Apart from that, a picture of the director with duct tape covering his mouth also served to create expectation. The marketing campaign used the form of seriality to intrigue the potential viewers launching short clips on YouTube called "appetizers" which represented each one of the eight episodes of the film. The first one, entitled The Compleat Angler, appeared on 28 June 2013. The next appetizers corresponded to each of the episodes in which the film is divided: Jerôme, Mrs. H, Delirium, The Little Organ School, The Eastern and the Western Church, The Mirror, and The Gun. The last one was released on the official website on December 25th, just before the release of the film. The international trailer, with explicit sexual content, was also a moment of scandal to pave the way for the film. When the movie was still in its pre-production phase, Lars von Trier announced that he was going to film real sex scenes combining footage from the stars of the movie and body doubles who would be porn actors. Then he would edit a hardcore and a soft version to be screened on the theaters depending on each country or each venue. Certainly, this campaign stood out as a very smart and effective way to create expectation before a film that was doomed to be a scandal, but it was not unusual in terms of the way films are promoted nowadays. However, the emphasis on the structure of the movie, the seriality of the episodes, and the collage poster of the characters portrayed in a very excessive pose, is giving clues of the self-awareness of the movie of its own structural and narrative excess. Further Information in this Wiki [[MELODRAMA AND NYMPHOMANIAC|Melodrama in Nymphomaniac]] External Links A complete description of the differences between the censored version and the director's cut can be found here: http://www.movie-censorship.com/report.php?ID=880568 and here: http://www.movie-censorship.com/report.php?ID=37577 '' Category:Film Category:Film History Category:Cinema Category:Sex Category:Body Category:Lars von Trier Category:Nymphomaniac Category:Charlotte Gainsbourg Category:Uma Thurman